circus

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A public entertainment consisting typically of a variety of performances by acrobats, clowns, and trained animals.

n. A traveling company that performs such entertainments.

n. A circular arena, surrounded by tiers of seats and often covered by a tent, in which such shows are performed.

n. A roofless oval enclosure surrounded by tiers of seats that was used in antiquity for public spectacles.

n. Chiefly British An open circular place where several streets intersect.

n. Informal Something suggestive of a circus, as in frenetic activity or noisy disorder: "The city is a circus of the senses” ( William H. Gass).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other novelty acts, that gives shows usually in a circular tent.

n. A round open space in a town or city where multiple streets meet.

n. In the ancient Roman Empire, a building for chariot racing.

n. A code name for bomber attacks with fighter escorts in the day time. The attacks were against short-range targets with the intention of occupying enemy fighters and keeping their fighter units in the area concerned.

n. Circuit; space; enclosure.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A level oblong space surrounded on three sides by seats of wood, earth, or stone, rising in tiers one above another, and divided lengthwise through the middle by a barrier around which the track or course was laid out. It was used for chariot races, games, and public shows.

n. A circular inclosure for the exhibition of feats of horsemanship, acrobatic displays, etc. Also, the company of performers, with their equipage.

n. Circuit; space; inclosure.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. In Roman antiquity, a large, oblong, roofless inclosure, used especially for horse- and chariot-races.

n. In modern times, a place of amusement where feats of horsemanship and acrobatic displays form the principal entertainment; the company of performers in such a place, with their equipage; the entertainment given.

n. In England, the space formed at the intersection of two streets by making the buildings at the angles concave, so as to give the intervening space the form of a circle: as, Oxford Circus, Regent Circus, in London.

n. An inclosed space of any kind; a circuit.

n. [capitalized] In ornithology, a genus of diurnal birds of prey, the harriers, typical of the subfamily Circinæ (which see)

Examples

Easily lost in this circus is the careful work that members of Congress do in holding hearings, passing legislation, and taking care of problems brought to their attention by constituents and the press.

Then that blends with what I call circus, which a modern critic would call an amusement-park ride, which is, you know, the gladiators, or horse races, or football teams, or things like that, which are exciting and are emotional.

Oh, and a trip to the Moscow state circus is not an adequate substitute for the opera or ballet visit also promised in the tour literature - but we shall draw a veil over some of the turns there, which if nothing else provided the UK visitors with a culture shock.